We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

All this rug stuff on Maggie's. Now I've been bidding on old rugs on eBay. Most of the eBay rug items are coarse new crap, but some looks very nice. Life does need beauty in it. But does one need to own it?

Photo: Borrowed from Moonbattery. At first I thought it was satire, but now I wonder. That shirt has got to come off.

RE: smalldeadanimals...
I think one way Kate does it is through controlled mayhem. heh. Seriously, SDA gets results. Political types like the former Premier Lorne Calvert and the professional Liberal "Ass Kicker" Warren Kinsella have learned that the hard way. Kate takes the left on with grace, style and good humor everyday and when that does not work, out come the 2x4's and she just nails them. Killing and skinning left wingers and their political plans is good sporting fun at smalldeadanimals.

As far as school endowments go, giving a lot of money to any third party organization, or charity for that matter, means that 'they' get to spend your money on what they think is important. Which is not necessarily what you think is most important. That's why we stopped giving charitable donations to the United Way, and instead direct our donations to specific charitable organizations, like Soldiers Angels, even, in that case, asking that they spend the money to buy voice activated laptop computers for injured soldiers who have lost hands or sight and are thus hampered in communicating with family or the outside world. Having been without my desktop computer for ten or twelve days now, [my motherboard seems to have run off with a traveling man] I know just how cranky and helpless that can make you feel.

Anyway, I also ceased all contributions to my Alma Mater when it decided to give Mr. Ahmadinijad a platform to spew his hatred of America. Political correctness is an ugly thing, born of intellectual laziness and a refusal to make value judgments and stick by them.

I'm with you on donations, but am disappointed to hear about United Way as a few years back, I read that with the Salvation Army and the Red Cross, they were tops. This was before Iraq. I give to Wounded Warriors and Soldiers Angels.

I'm fascinated by your description of political correctness. The 'refusal to make value judgments and stick by them' is so right-on, but I'm stopped by the 'intellectual laziness'. I would call it intellectual fear. But as I think about it, it had to start with something before it morphed into intellectual fear, and my mind keeps thinking intellectual ineptitude mixed with effrontery. No matter, its spread has devastated truth and ethics.

I left teaching because of political correctness. Obviously, there is more to it, but it's a long story told over and over again by many teachers who leave a profession where the administration is so governed by political correctness that they live in fear and sacrifice the welfare of their teachers to keep from offending someone else. A few years ago, a psychiatrist friend of mine just home from the APA's annual meeting told me the number one group of people who seek out psychiatric help is teachers. The number one reason for seeking that help: Lack of support by their administrators. Sadly, parents and students know this and take full advantage of it.

Fear has to be an element of political correctness if not its major by-product.
`

Meta, my friend ... I have to agree with you that "fear has to be an element of political correctness." Now that I am no longer in the daily scrum of trying to make a living, I tend to forget that success in any field involves a certain amount of going along to get along, and I did a major amount of this at times.

But in some fields, and I believe teaching is now one of those, the front-line foot soldiers are constantly being betrayed by the bosses who ought to be protecting them. Stand-up guts in supervisors are increasingly rare everywhere, but especially in fields where unions, like the NEA, have made great inroads, aided by busy-body legislatures which pass stupid and unworkable laws about societal values. Indiviual freedoms are thrown under the bus in those cases, and that seems to be what has happened to the teaching profession. The saddest thing is that real learning is being by-passed and young people have to depart academia for the real world sadly unprepared.

Hope I haven't stepped on any toes here, but "wotthehell Archie, whothehell" as Mehitabel the cat used to say.

BRAVO Marianne--I could not have said it that well. Perhaps, because of the fear we have lived with and never succumbed to in spite of the penalties and brutal abuse we have suffered. But you dear MM put it into words--hope someone will listen.

I believe what has to happen is this: grandparents, older teachers, retired professionals from any field need to organize into local groups. They then need to confront the school boards--not in their own towns, or counties, but rather in an exchange with like groups from other parts of the state, or country. In that way reasonable people will be SEEN, perhaps heard, and local children and their parents will not be penalized by the terribly brutal local unions. I think this of exchanging groups provide some protection. It's kind of like bussing for Obama!

RE: rugs...I like old rugs too NJ and have seen some good deals on ebay. Bidding seems a bit tricky. The auction snipers very often win.
Was out walking one morning late last summer and came across a yard sale. Spotted an old prayer rug and asked the lady how much. She said $15.....$10......$5. I had not even brought my wallet but she held it for me until I could return with the five bucks. It was a little worn and when I got it home and looked closely I could see the worn spots were from someones knees.

Re: Burris...Wow. Have worked on a couple of mausoleums or as the construction crews call them, dead sheds. One had a twelve inch thick concrete roof. Good place to go if there ever is a nuclear attack. Also, I think it might be nice to be well housed for eternity, as the local cemetary here has too many gophers. I halfway expect to see one pop up sporting gold teeth and a wedding ring. The PETA crowd goes nuts if anyone complains or tries to get rid of them.

E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: